New Darkness Leads To A New Light
by ItsDeathRyder
Summary: My first co-op fanfic with friend I role play with. I brought my character from my Legend of Lyoko series while icypika created Kai. This is non canon to my Legend of Lyoko series but everything about Alex is the same. Rated T for possible future content, might include some mild language later on.
1. Let it Begin

**New Darkness Leads To A New Light. Chapter 1.**

The sound of battle echoed through the ice sector, Alex and the others were escorting Aelita to an active tower. Alex's keen eyes saw two krabes approaching from the east, he looked to Ulrich and Yumi. "You two break off and take down those krabes." Yumi nodded and she split off, Ulrich right behind her. Continuing on, Aelita saw the tower dead ahead. "We're 800 meters away Jeremy." In the lab, Jeremy was hard at work, he responded with "Great, but there's a mega tank and two tarantulas coming from the west."

Alex's audio card lit up "We'll take care of it Jeremy. Odd, William, think you guys can take them down?" William smirked "You bet we can Alex, come on Odd." The two broke off as Yumi and Ulrich joined up again. "We took a bit of damage in the fight, but we managed to destroy the krabes." Yumi explained. Alex nodded, "At least you guys are still here. Now come on. we have work to do."

Behind the main group, Odd and William were having fun dealing with the megatank and tarantulas. Odd had received his overboard and was keeping them distracted while William was approaching from behind, his zweihander appeared in his hand and he hefted it, making a clean cut through the first tarantula. The second shot Odd off his board, sending him across the ice. William had to act fast, using his super smoke, he stopped Odd from falling into the digital sea and send him into the air.

Odd landed on his tail and opened fire, his laser arrow barrage destroying the megatank. William cut the last tarantula down and they ran to join the others. They found Alex standing guard outside the tower. Aelita had just gone in. He looked at the others before saying "Jeremy, we're ready to come home. Materialize us whenever."

Jeremy tapped on the keyboard of the supercomputer "Alright, materialization Odd, Yumi, Ulrich." After Aelita deactivated the tower, he readied the other materialization. "Materialization Alex, Aelita and William." The group got into the elevator, picked up Jeremy and up to the main factory. After they had got back to the school, Alex split off saying "I'll catch you guys later, Delmas has me showing a new student around today. See you at dinner." He walked towards the administration building and went into Jean Pierre Delmas's office.

* * *

"Hey principal Delmas, sorry I'm a little late, is the new student here yet?" Alex asked. Jean Pierre nodded. "He just showed up a few minutes ago, I had him waiting in my workroom. Come on in Kai." Alex turned his head as the door opened. He walked in and for a lack of better word was shocked.

A 14 year old kid walked in he looked more like a girl then a boy, had long light brown hair, blue eyes, they were wearing a light blue t-shirt with Khaki shorts. He said shyly, "Um… hi." Alex nodded, "Hello and welcome to Kadic, I'm Alex, Head of the school boxing club, captain of the basketball team and the men's volleyball team."

He said, "Um… cool. You certainly have a lot of activities." Alex nodded again "Kadic has many clubs and extra curriculars as well as great academic programs." He held out his hand to shake. "I'll show you around the school today." Kai shook his hand and just started playing with his necklace. "Come on," Alex said "I'd like to get this tour started. You have your new student information packet on hand?"

Kai nodded and showed him the package. He asked, "Where are we going first?" Alex opened the door "Let's start with the dorms." Kai nodded and followed him. He looked at Alex and asked, "How long have you been at Kadic?" Alex kept walking as he said "Two years. I lead the basketball team to two national titles."

Kai said, "Cool. Lead the way."

Alex led the way to the dorms. "Alright, tell me about your old school."

He replied, "My old school well. As you know I look extremely girly. I was always bullied by the older boys and girls. Some of the guys would just beat me up for no reason. My mom decided to send me to a new school hoping that things would be better there. Now here I am."

Alex looked back at him "Interesting, I was sent here because my parents got job transfers here."

He asked, "What do you parents do?"

"My mom's a lawyer, she just found a new law firm to work for, my dad is a chemical engineer. Both their professions bring in a lot of money. Enough to keep me enrolled here 25 times over." He kept walking "Alright. the men's dormitories are on the 3rd floor, Women on the second, any faculty on the 4th and the 1st floor is lockers and maintenance."

He said, "Thanks. Which room was I again?"

"It's in your acceptance letter, As a boarder, your dorm number is attached to the head letter." Alex explained.

"Okay," Kai nodded and took a look at his letter, "312." Alex thought for a second. "You're in the room right next to mine. I'm in 310, my buddies Odd and Ulrich are across the hall in 311.

He said nervously, "Um what are your friends like?"

Alex laughed "Odd is a joker, fun guy, great basketball player, very agile and can be a total smart alec at times, his roommate Ulrich is a little more quiet about things, he's into martial arts like I am, we just have different disciplines, he does pencak silat, I study muay thai, the art of the spider as well as judo, the gentle art." Alex opened the door to 312, "Here's your room, you can drop your stuff off here and we can get back to the tour."

Kai nodded, "Sure. The way you describe your friends reminds me of my two older sisters."

"Woah, two sisters? I'm an only child. but I'm kind of glad I don't have siblings, less stress for my parents." He leaned against the wall, giving Kai time to set his stuff down and get settled in.

He said, "Having two sisters isn't easy especially during that time of the month. One of my sisters is just like Odd and my other sister is like Ulrich except much more cold."

Alex pushed himself off the wall "You ready to get back to touring the school? If we're lucky, we might run into my friends."

Kai said nervously, "Right...lucky."

"Come on, you'd like my friends, I'm not limited to just Odd and Ulrich. I also have Yumi, William, Jeremy, and Aelita. Then there's one of the principal's daughter's cronies I befriended. His name's Nicholas and he is a crazy awesome drummer."

Kai said, "Oh. Can you tell me a bit more about Aelita?" He blushed.

Alex nodded "Aelita is my ex-girlfriend, we had an 8-month stint together, she's very bright, like Jeremy and she's good with computers, she's part of the basketball cheerleaders, and one of the kindest friends a person could have."

Kai said, "She sounds really nice." His face turned even more red.

"Believe me, she's really fun to hang around with. She kinda got recently hired as a manager for a band I'm part of. Odd, Ulrich, Yumi, Nicholas and I are the Pop Rock Progressive." Alex explained as they walked. Yumi is female vocals, I'm male vocals, keytar and bassist, Odd is lead guitar, Ulrich plays the keyboard, and Nicholas is our drummer, We're pretty good if you ask most people around the school." He lead Kai down the stairs and to the rec room. "This is our rec room, we're free to hang out here as we please." He looked around to see Yumi and William engaged in a fierce ping pong match. "There's my friends Yumi and William over there. Looks like they're in a best 3 of five the score is 2-2 and its match point."

Kai said quietly, "Oh...cool." Kai just stayed quiet. Yumi and William noticed them, the ping pong ball bouncing against William's side of the table. "We can always replay match point," William said, he chuckled.

Alex nodded, "Glad we didn't ruin your game. Yumi, William, this is Kai, he's new here so I'm showing him around." William smiled, "Welcome to Kadic bro. William Dunbar, at your service." Yumi slapped his shoulder, "Knock it off William. You don't need to say that to every new kid Alex shows around." Then to Kai she said "Sorry about him, I'm Yumi, Yumi Ishiyama."

Kai said shyly, "Um… hi. How long have you been at Kadic?"

William explained him "I've been here for a couple of years, Yumi, and Odd came a year after Jeremy and Ulrich did, Aelita came a half a year before I moved here, and Alex came here a year later, he kind of completed our group."

Kai said, "Oh cool. Where to next Alex?"

"The class rooms. I always enjoy talking to Mrs. Hertz. She's the science teacher. I have her for advanced physics, you'll have her for biology and chemistry."

Kai said, "Alright. Bye you guys."

Alex led Kai across the recess yard and into the classroom building. "This is the science and mathematics building. There's another building near the administration building where the rest of your classes will be."

Kai said, " Thanks."

Alex smiled "No problem at all." Is there anything else you would like to see?"

Kai said, "No not that I can think of. My sisters will love the school when they get here."

"Well I guess I'll see you tomorrow. I need to get to volleyball practice." Alex checked his watch. "Ok, I have 20 minutes to get changed and to the gym."

* * *

Kai said, "Alright I'm gonna relax in my room."

Alex ran off leaving Kai on his own. Kai headed to his room, but bumped into a blonde clad in purple. Odd turned around and said "Hey, how's it going?"

Kai said shyly, "Um… ok."

Odd's jaw dropped, "Oh, you're a guy. Kinda look like a girl, but it's cool."

Kai said, "Yeah what's your name?"

Odd ran his hand through his hair spike "Odd Della Robbia, I heard Alex was showing you around, he's a friend of mine."

Kai said, "Yeah he just finished showing me around. I was going to go to my room and relax."

"Alright, I have to get to the gym. Volleyball pictures and practice." He started walking "See you later."

Kai said, "Alright see ya later."

Odd jogged off leaving Kai on his own. Kai decided to go to his room.

Around dinner, Alex met up with his friends. Jeremy, Aelita, Odd, Ulrich and William had already claimed their table so they could eat together as always. They had their usual laughs and jokes until they had finished. Alex left for his room so he could finish his school work. Ulrich decided to go spend some time in the rec room. Odd ran off to get Kiwi for a walk, and Jeremy and Aelita had snuck off to the factory so they could work on a top secret project of theirs.

Ulrich watched the trees as he made his way into the park, he wasn't paying much attention to where he was going and bumped into someone. "Sorry about that." He apologized and started back to his walk.

Kai said, "Its fine. I was just taking a walk." Ulrich shrugged "I wasn't watching where I was going. I really have to start paying more attention to that. I'm Ulrich by the way."

Kai said, "I'm Kai. Where were you headed?" Ulrich responded with "Just around the park. Gonna see if I can find my roommate Odd."

Kai said, "Alright."

* * *

The next morning at breakfast Kai was looking for a place to sit. He saw Alex and his friends sitting in the corner and Alex noticed him. "Kai, over here. We have an open seat. Come join us." Kai hesitantly walked over, but got tripped by Sissi. He fell to the floor. Kai said, "Ow."

Sissi said, "Well well a new girl at school." Kai tried to say something but Alex came over. "Okay Delmas, I don't care if you're the principal's daughter. You leave Kai alone, if you try anything again, he will tell me and I will expose your secret. Remember the last school dance? Yeah, I know what you did afterwards."

Sissi was shocked "Y-you don't mean…"

Alex nodded "Yeah, lay one more hand on my man Kai here and the pictures hit the internet. That's not a threat, that's a promise."

Sissi huffed, "Fine. The kid still looks like a girl. A girly boy thats what he is and always will be."

"Can it Sissi, That's a warning, one more and you're finished." Sissi walked off.

Kai turned to Alex saying, "Thanks Alex. But its nothing new especially that girly boy comment." Alex put a hand on Kai's shoulder "I hate bullies, and Sissi picks on anyone and she likes to just because she can't be touched because she's the principal's daughter, the only time I can knock some sense into her is during boxing, she joined and I can't kick her out, so I just knock the tar out of her. A lot of people hate her, my friends and I can't stand her and she really needs to learn to leave Ulrich alone."

Kai sad, "Wow. Talk about being all high and mighty. I would never hit a girl. My sisters would kill me."

"Boxing is the only time I can and it's socially acceptable because it's for a competitive sport. Otherwise I'm actually the campus gentleman."

Kai nodded, "I get your point. Um… who's the girl with the pink hair?" He blushed as he said that. Alex chuckled, "That's Aelita, I told you a little about her yesterday."

Kai nodded, "I'm pretty sure you know why I'm blushing. Please don't tell anyone especially the blonde I can tell they are dating."

Alex pressed his glasses up his nose "Odd? He flies lone wolf, he can't keep a girlfriend so he gave up after dating almost every girl on campus."

Kai shook his head, "Not him. The other one and if what you say is true about Odd he won't be able to control himself when my sisters get here."

"Ulrich and I will hold him back when that happens. As for Jeremy, he and Aelita aren't dating anymore, they did for a while, then Aelita took me for a test drive back when Jeremy and I were roommates, before I figured out that we wouldn't work out. Now everyone of my friends except Ulrich and Yumi are single. But, it's cool, we don't mind going lone wolf."

Kai said with very little confidence, "Like she would ever go for a guy like me. I have to get breakfast again."

Alex pulled some cash from his wallet and handed it to Kai "It's on me man. I'm not taking it back."

Kai tried to object but ended up saying, "Fine." He got some eggs and bacon and sat next to Alex.

Alex smiled "You can keep the change, use it for a soda later." He finished off his food and stood up saying "This is where I take my leave. I'll catch you guys later."

Kai said, "According to my schedule I have the bane of my existence first period. Gym."

Odd laughed "Jim isn't a bad gym teacher, he's actually kind of funny. He has a secret I keep for him." Odd got up and was followed out by Jeremy, Ulrich, and Aelita, this left William at the table.

Kai saw this and asked, "William are you heading to class?"

William shook his head, I registered an open period first hour, that way I can get any late homework finished."

Kai sighed, "Alright. Wish me luck in surviving gym class."

William chuckled "Good luck bro, have fun."

* * *

Kai said, "Thanks." and left the cafeteria. He headed to gym class. When he got to the gym class and was met with a very ticked off looking gym teacher. He thought to himself _shoot_.

Jim said, "I'll talk to you personally for BEING LATE ON YOUR FIRST DAY KAMIYA!"

Alex was sitting in Theoretical Physics when his phone buzzed in his pocket. It was a text from Jeremy. He unlocked his phone and saw. _Code XANA. Use class escape plan Alpha_. Alex responded with _Got it, see you at the factory._ Alex raised his hand "Mrs. Hertz, my dad just told me he needed me at gates ASAP." Mrs. Hertz sighed "Fine, get going." Alex left the class and took off running across the recess yard. He got to the edge of the park and dialed Jeremy "Einstein, it's me, I'm on my way to the factory. I'll see you in a few. Get the scanners ready."

Kai was in Jim's office alone when a weird ghost thing came out of the outlet and possessed Jim.

Kai shouted, "WHAT IN THE!" He is cut off when 'Jim' zapped him. 'Jim' ran off.

Kai said, "Should I tell Alex about this?" He pulls out his phone and dials Alex's number he gave him yesterday. Kai nervously said, "Come on pick up."

Alex hung up and noticed Kai had called him "What'd Kai want?" He texted him "Hey man, sorry I missed your call, I was in a phone call. What's up?"

Kai texted back, "The gym teacher just got possessed by something and zapped me. Does that happen?"Alex's response was simple "Kai, just run and find a place to hide, Jim isn't going to harm you. He's after me and my friends if what you say is correct, I can't say why. Sorry about that."

Kai saw this and said to himself, "If he thinks I'm gonna lie around after all the kindness he showed me. He is wrong." Kai ran off to find 'Jim'.

In the park, Alex lifted the manhole cover climbed down and slid it back into place. He mounted his BMX bike and took off. Two of the skateboards were gone. "Yumi hasn't get here yet. She has english this hour. I wonder if Miss Kensington isn't believing her." He dialed Kai as he pedaled.

Kai picked up and said, "Hello. What is going on Alex, I know that you know."

"Kai I wish I could explain but after this you won't remember what happened. But listen, I need you to go to Miss Kensington's class and get Yumi out of class."

Kai replied, "Fine. After I get Yumi is there anything else I can help with? I won't take no for an

answer."

"Listen Kai, just make sure Jim doesn't leave campus." Alex explained "Do that for me. Please?"

Kai said, "Sure." He ran to Miss. Kensington's class. He said out of breath, "Miss. Kensington Yumi needs to go home now. Her… uh parents are at the hospital."

Miss Kensington's jaw dropped, "Oh my, Miss. Ishiyama, you're dismissed. Sorry for keeping you." Yumi got into the hall, tousled Kai's hair "Thanks Kai." she said to him before taking off running.

Kai yelled to her, "Wait can you explain to me what the heck is going on?"

Yumi yelled back "I wish I could, but I have to go." She sped up and ran for the park.

Kai sighed, "Mission 1 done. Now onto mission 2." He ran off to find 'Jim.'

* * *

Alex and the others got to the factory, "Get us to Lyoko fast. Aelita Yumi and Me are first up." He ran across the scanner room and into the first scanner. Aelita and Yumi get in theirs and Jeremy started the procedure. The scanner doors closed and Alex could hear his favorite thing Jeremy said.

"Transfer Alex, transfer Aelita, transfer Yumi. Scanner, virtualization."

Odd, Ulrich and William got sent in and Alex looked around the forest. "This is a dark tower guys. Weird how he took over one person. And Kai is fighting him alone. Jeremy, get us our vehicles, we need to move."

Jeremy tapped on his keyboard "Coming right up, I'm gonna check on the situation at the school." On Lyoko, two overbikes, one black, one silver, the overwing, and Odd's overboard materialized. William's manta flew up out of the digital sea, They mounted up, Alex gunned his silver overbike's throttle and they took off.

In the lab Jeremy pulled up the live feed from the campus security cameras. "Alright Kai, where are you?"

Back on campus, Kai was in the gym staring down a XANAfied Jim. Jim laughed and in his XANAfied voice said "You think you can prevent me from getting to your friends? You're gravely mistaken."

He grumbled, "I can not believe I am doing this, when I don't know what I'm fighting. It's clear that this IS NOT a Gym teacher." Jim charged at Kai who jumped easily out the way and got behind XANA/Jim. Kai cringed at the voice, "No but I can try. What are you anyways?"

XANA Jim smirked "You don't need to know."

Kai stated bluntly, "Either way I'm not letting you hurt my friend." He thought to himself, _it's clear brute force isn't going to work I need strategy lets hope Athena is blessing me. _

Kai used his speed from his size to get behind Jim. He kicked Jim in the back.

XANA Jim recovered fast and lashed out, sending Kai into the mats. He started walking for the doors. "Too easy." he said as he walked off. Kai got up and ran as fast as he could to get to Jim. When he did he tripped him up. He coughed, "You're not getting away. You…. whatever you are."

XANA Jim's eyes went from normal looking to a full XANA eye, he grabbed Kai's wrist and started to pump electricity into Kai's body. Kai screamed, "That isn't going to work. I've suffered slaps worse than that." He freed himself by kicking XANA in the stomach. Kai said, "You get a lot of endurance from living with 3 girls."

* * *

In the lab, Jeremy watched all this go down. "Kai is nuts. But he's got guts." That's when Alex's audio card lit up. "J-man, I've almost got it disabled. Get that return trip ready to go. Kai's keeping Jim occupied, but I'm not sure how long he can last."

On Lyoko Alex nodded, "I just got in the dark tower. I'll be entering the code in a few seconds," He stepped to the center of the tower, sat down cross legged and started floating upward. On the top platform, he stood and tapped the interface. It read his fingerprints and displayed his name before asking for his code. He tapped in PRINCE and the tower disabled.

Just as Jim was standing up he stopped, his eyes returning to normal. "What in the world? What's going on?"

Kai said, "I'm in the same boat as you Jim."

* * *

Back in the factory, Jeremy looked at the camera feed. "Jim's back to normal, but just so no one remembers this. Here we go." He typed in the commands he needed and hit enter. "Return to the past now." Time reverted back to that morning after breakfast. Alex looked at his friends as they were leaving for class. "That was too close guys, Kai almost found us out." Jeremy looked over at him "We can't risk him finding out."

They looked around and split up. All agreeing to keep an eye on Kai, make sure he stayed safe and wouldn't discover their secret.

* * *

**A/N: Hope you're liking this co-op fanfic with my role play friend icypika, it's been fun writing it. I've had fun and we'll be working on more chapters. -Ulrich-Stern3277**

**Icy: Sup icypika here. I'm helping him write this story. I'm a huge fan of Code Lyoko. We met on facebook and we learned that we both love Code Lyoko. My character is Kai. **


	2. He Knows Now

The days progressed by and XANA stayed pretty quiet. Almost like it was planning something. This aroused Alex and Jeremy's suspicions so they went to the factory early one morning. Odd tagged along because he didn't want to hang around school today. It was a teacher's inservice today anyway.

In the lab Jeremy checked on XANA's power, "Just as I suspected, XANA has something planned. Alex, I'm sending you to sector five to get some needed info from the main dark tower. Alex nodded, walked over to the hatch and climbed down the ladder. He stepped into a scanner and yelled up "Ready to go Jeremy." Jeremy virtualized him and let him set to work.

Alex navigated his way to the central hub of sector five and entered the main dark tower. As he worked to access data, in the lab Jeremy and Odd were conversing about XANA's last attack. "So Kai really held his own against Jim?" Odd asked. Jeremy nodded. "He was able to hold out surprisingly well. I was impressed." As Jeremy said that Alex's voice came over the speakers. "Okay Jeremy, I have the data decrypted and all set to go. I'm sending it right now." A window opened on the supercomputer's upper screen.

Jeremy read the data and panicked "It's worse than I suspected. XANA is making more replicas. It's strong enough to do that again." Alex's audio card lit up again "Tell me something Jeremy, would the superscan be able to pick those up if we rebooted the modified version?"

Jeremy thought about it for a second before saying "Alex, you're a genius. I'll rematerialize you and set to work. I'll call you when I finish." a minute later Alex climbed back into the lab saying "Come on Odd, let's head back to school and grab some breakfast. We'll leave Jeremy to work."

Odd followed happily saying "You know me pretty well Alex." Alex just laughed "Everyone knows your kryptonite is food Odd. It's so obvious." They stepped into the elevator and Alex hit the up button. "Catch ya later Einstein," they said together and the elevator door closed.

Back at Kadic, Alex and Odd stepped out of the gym and walked to the cafeteria, deep in conversation. They spoke in hushed tones "I'm just saying Odd, if XANA's rebuilding replicas this could be a bad thing. It's not good, remember those robots you guys told me you found. He could be using the replicas to build strength to activate them and unleash them on humanity." Odd agreed "I tell you XANA's always up to his old tricks, and sometimes it's hard to stay ahead of him.

The guys passed by Kai, who had a worried look on his face. Alex stopped "Kai, is something wrong? You seem like you're worried about something."

He stated bluntly, "Not really. My sisters are coming today. My sisters are going to make it harder for me to fit in." Odd's jaw dropped, "So you're like me, only boy in a family of girls. Finally, someone who knows what that's like."

Kai said, "Yes and no. You're still luckier than me Odd."

Odd was now curious, "Alex go ahead and grab us a table and some breakfast, I'll pay you back later." Alex nodded and walked off, leaving Odd and Kai to talk. The purple clad blonde had to ask "How am I luckier than you? Living with four sister's is a pain. That's why I hate going home on the holiday breaks."

He answered, "Because at least you don't look like a girl. Not mention they are both older than

me. If they get angry you better run for the hills." Odd looked at him. "Wow, that's nuts man."

Kai said, "Yes it is. A lot people say I look like a younger male version of my sister Lily."

Odd nodded, "I understand what you go through Kai, now let's get something to eat. I'm starving and Alex is waiting, I owe him some money for buying my breakfast." Odd walked off to the cafeteria. He sat down by Alex, pulled out his wallet and handed him some cash. "There we go, all settled up."

Ulrich and William sat down and Alex and Odd told them about Kai's fight with Jim the other day. William asked "You think we should tell him about the lab and Lyoko?" Ulrich gave him a stern glare, saying "Are you insane William, telling Kai about our secret could blow everything and get us arrested."

"Sorry, I forgot about that. We can tell Kai, but I say we hold it to a group vote. We'll go to Yumi's after breakfast, I'll call Jeremy and put him on speaker so we can have a vote. We won't have to worry about arousing any suspicions from her family, they're gone today, she's home alone. Besides, if it weren't for Kai, Yumi wouldn't have gotten out of class to help us on Lyoko." Alex explained.

Odd agreed. "It's true, Alex told me everything. So yeah, we go to Yumi's and hold it to a group vote. If it's yes, let's hope Kai can keep a secret." Everyone agreed to that.

Kai was heading to the principal's office to wait for his sisters Bella and Lily. Kai said, "Lets hope Lily doesn't kill me with a death hug." He knocked on Jean Pierre's door. Mr. Delmas's voice came from the other side of the door "Come on in." Kai walked in and saw his sister's Bella and Lily. Just as he said to Odd earlier. Lily was basically an older female version of Kai.

Bella on the other hand took more from the father's side of the family she had short dark brown hair and was 5 foot 2 inches and was more athletic then Kai. Kai said nervously, "Hey."

Mr. Delmas looked over to Kai "I expect you'll be showing them around. Have fun."

Kai said, "Yes sir." He showed them around just as Alex did for him.

Lily said with her very bubbly personality, "Thanks little bro. By the way do you still keep that diary of yours?"

He said, "It isn't a diary it's a journal." Bella rolled her eyes, "Its a diary." They went into their room.

Kai bumped into Sissi again. Sissi said, "Well well looks like girly boy has his family here now.

You really are a freak." Kai ignored her and walked off.

At the Ishiyama's, Alex and the others sat down in the living room. Odd was the first to speak, "So we're here to vote on telling Kai our secret. All in favor say aye." No votes. "All opposed same sign." Everyone voted aye. Alex spoke next "There's our decision. Kai stays in the dark. I'm heading back to the school. My car needs a once over and a quick tune up."

Alex stood up, bowed to Yumi and walked out. The others hung around for a while before splitting up. Alex got back to school and went to the parking lot near the track. His car was a 2012 Dodge Viper imported from America. A gift from his family. He grabbed his tools from his trunk and set to work on the car.

Meanwhile in Bella and Lily's room they were plugging in their electronic when there was a spark coming from the outlet and XANA's ghost came out and Lily and Bella screamed.

Kai said, "What was that?!" He ran to his sister's room and he opened the door to be met with a shocking greeting. Kai stuttered, "Wh..what in the world?" He got shocked by Bella.

Alex heard a commotion as he closed his viper's hood. "What in the world?" he questioned. Putting his jacket back on and wiping his hands with a shop rag. He turned to see Kai running from Bella, thinking fast, Alex took off after them. Something wasn't right. He swung his left fist at Bella, knocking her unconscious. He grabbed Kai's wrist and ran towards the gym. Come on, we have to move.

Alex led Kai into the maintenance room and opened a red door. "In here, come on." He ran down the tunnel and grabbed his bike. "Shut the the door behind you Kai." Kai did so, "What's going on?" Alex mounted his bike. "I'll explain later, just follow me, hope you can keep up."

Kai nodded and followed him.

Alex pedaled towards the factory, making sure Kai could see him. When he got to the factory, he climbed the ladder with Kai right behind him. "Come on, into the factory." He ran inside, grabbed a rope and swung down.

Kai asked, "Are you sure?"

Alex stood waiting in the elevator. "Come on or I'm going down without you." Kai ran to the elevator. Alex hit the down button and the elevator began its descent.

Kai questioned, "So are you going to explain what's going on?"

"Jeremy will. I have work to do." The elevator door opened to the lab "This is your stop Kai. Jeremy, ready the procedure, I'm taking the dive." Kai walked into the lab, behind him Alex shut the elevator door and rode down to the scanners. He stepped in and yelled "Ready to go Jeremy."

Kai asked, "Jeremy what's going on?"

Jeremy responded "Once Alex is on Lyoko, I'll explain everything." He tapped on his keyboard. "Transfer Alex, scanner Alex." His right index finger pressed enter "Virtualization."

Kai sighed, "Alright."

Jeremy kept his eyes on the screens "Tell me Kai, what do you know about viruses?"

He answered, "I know they can be deadly especially if it gets into missile control."

Jeremy looked over to him "Your understanding is good enough. The virus we're fighting against is a thousand times worse than any normal virus. XANA's only intent is to rule humanity through technology."

Kai sighed, "So its a case of technology turning on humans."

Jeremy nodded "All controlled by one multi-agent system."

He asked, "How can I help?"

"Right now, there's no need, so just sit over there."

Kai nodded and sat down. Jeremy worked quietly, monitoring things on Lyoko. He spoke into his headset, "Alex, you guys have three krabes on your tails. Watch out." Alex responded. Odd and Ulrich are on them already.

Kai just watched, "Jeremy how exactly does XANA possess people?"

"XANA is a multi-agent system, through electronics he creates specters that can take over humans, animals, technology, you name it." Jeremy explained. He looked at the holomap again. "Watch out, tarantulas coming from the east, three squads of hornets coming in from the north." William's Lyoko ID card came center screen and faded. "William's been devirtualized." He's back in the scanner room." Ulrich's card did the same. "Dang, two down. Alex, what's going on?"

Alex's audio card lit up "We were ambushed, if you're gonna yell at me because of that, get your ass in here and help out. I know you can." Jeremy looked at his reflection in the supercomputer screen. "I have to do it. I have to help them." William and Ulrich walked into the lab "Jeremy, if you're going to Lyoko, I'll virtualize you." Ulrich said. William butted in after him "And I'll make sure he doesn't screw up.

Kai said, "Let me help. XANA possessed my sister. If you think I'm going to let him do that without a fight, then you're not as smart as you think you are. Besides it seems like Jeremy is the only one who can work the Super Computer without risking it shutting down."

Jeremy held up one finger "One time Kai, then we wipe your memory," He handed Ulrich a book "All the commands for virtualization are on page 20, you know what to do Ulrich. Come on Kai." Jeremy opened the hatch on the far side of the lab and climbed down. He stepped into a scanner and yelled up "I'm ready to go Ulrich."

Kai took a deep breath, "I'm ready too Ulrich. I'm ready to save my sister."

Ulrich cracked his knuckles, took a deep breath and began typing. "Transfer Jeremy, Scanner Jeremy, Transfer Kai, Scanner Kai… Virtualization. Jeremy and Kai dropped into the forest sector. Jeremy looked at Kai, looked forward, drew his sword, and started walking.

Kai said, "Whoa that was strange." He looked down at himself and he looked exactly like Pit from Kid Icarus Uprising. He had the Silver Bow on his back along with arrows. Two lasers came out of nowhere and hit right in front of us. Kai sighed, "I'm assuming these are the Krabes you were talking about. Where do you hit them?" Kai suddenly had a visual of XANA's eye on the top. He said, "I have an awesome idea it's bloody stupid but it's worth a shot." Kai ran as fast as he could and just before the Krabes hit him with a laser he jumped up into the air and pulled out two arrows and launched them at the Krabes and destroyed them.

Jeremy shook his head and said to himself. "He has no clue those are the weak points. Those were sentries, the rest have Alex, Aelita and the others pinned down somewhere." He looked at Kai, I'm going on ahead. Try and keep up." He took a running stance. "Penticate." Five Jeremy clones appeared and took off running. "Sonic boom!" With that, all five Jeremy's sped up, moving along at breakneck speed. Kai followed at his top speed.

Further into the forest, Alex and Odd were attacking from range. "Keep Aelita safe, She has to disable the tower. How XANA has the strength to activate a dark and a normal tower is a mystery to me. Kai and Jeremy arrived ready to help. Kai had figured out the the eyes were the weak spot of the monsters. Kai pulled out more his arrows and aimed for the 'eyes' of the monsters.

"Just know that these monsters won't go down without a fight. If they hit you, you will lose life points, lose too many any you're gone."

Kai said, "I sorta figured, there is a lot of stuff like this in movies. There's alway complications."

Jeremy's clones ran to aide the others while he explained to Kai "Listen to me, we have to keep Alex and Aelita safe, they are the only two who can shut down the towers."

Kai nodded, "Ok Jeremy."

Alex was having the time of his life distracting a megatank, He sank his rapier blade into the target. "Impact!" He dropped back, sheathed his sword, and drew his pistols and waited for Yumi's signal. There were still four krabes to deal with. Yumi's tessan fans tore through two of them. Odd and Jeremy finished off the other two. Now the area around the dark tower was clear. Alex nodded to the others, "I'll finish this and we'll move on to the other tower." He ran inside, returning after a minute to join the others.

The group was about to take off when they saw a figure standing there. Armed just like Alex, dressed the same way, though the colors were black gray and blood red. Tattooed around his left eye was a XANA eye. Alex stepped forward "None of you would be able to defeat him. Get Aelita to the tower, I'll handle Nega-Alex. GO!" Alex and Nega-Alex drew their swords and faced each other.

Jeremy looked to the others, "Alex has this, let's go." Odd, Yumi and Aelita nodded and followed him. Kai followed as well. Alex stood and stared down his dark side. "Long time no see old friend. It has been a while since our last battle, so let's have at it.

The two swordsmen charged at each other, their blades colliding many times in rapid succession. Alex kicked Nega-Alex in the stomach and dropped back. "I have to buy the others time." He looked at Nega-Alex. "If you want me, you'll have to catch me." He started running away in the opposite direction of his friends. "Super Sprint!" Sure enough, Nega-Alex took the bait and followed him.

Near the tower, Jeremy and the others were being pursued by a squad of hornets. Odd and Kai slid to a halt. "Jeremy, keep going. Get Aelita to the tower, Kai and I will cover you guys." Jeremy nodded and he and Aelita kept running.

Odd unleashed a volley of laser arrows, knocking three out right away, the fourth fired a blast connecting with his chest. Ulrich's voice came on "Watch it Odd, you're down to 50 life points, you can't take another hit like that.

"I know that Ulrich, you're sounding just like Jeremy. Kai, we have to work together, double up our fighting strength." Kai nodded "Understood." He notched two arrows "Ready when you are." Odd pumped his wrist to reload "Locked and loaded." The first hornet came into sight. Kai took aim, took a deep breath and let his shots fly. The arrows hit their mark, the hornet hit the ground and exploded. Dropping back Kai said "You're up Odd." Odd slid out of hiding and opened fire, launching a barrage of arrows. One hit it's mark, the last hornet exploded and the guys ran to catch up with Jeremy.

Across the sector, Alex and Nega-Alex's battle had concluded. Speaking in his native tongue Alex said to his defeated foe "Tha ago̱nisteí éntima , allá sto télos , kaló thriamvév̱ei páno̱ apó to kakó." And he ran off to find the others.

Aelita got to the tower and managed to deactivate it. Ulrich initiated a return trip and things reverted to that morning. Once again, Alex and his friends were walking under the arches of the dorms "Well, I'm glad that's over. I hate fighting Nega-Alex. Why XANA created him is a mystery to me." Alex said, breaking the silence. Jeremy shrugged "With a little more research, we might find out why Nega-Alex exists, you'll have your answer then."

Alex smirked "Good, then we can figure out how to destroy him. XANA's monsters are tough enough as it is."

**A/N:**

**Ulrich-Stern3277: For those of you who do not understand Greek, Alex's final quote in his battle with Nega-Alex was "You fought honorably, but in the end, good triumphs over evil." This co-op fanfic has been fun. I'm enjoying it and if any of my readers ever want to try one with me, just shoot me a PM. Sorry this chapter took so long to get up, I've been a little busy lately and Icypika and I haven't had many opportunities to write together. Thanks and I hope you're enjoying the story.**

**Icypika: Yeah you can thank Ulrich-Stern for the battle scenes, my skills lie with character interaction. **


	3. Data Run

Alex and Jeremy had spent the weekend at the factory researching Nega Alex and working on a few upgrades for the team. The lab floor was riddled with fast food burger wrappers, pizza boxes and chinese takeout boxes. The guys had been busy, Alex had brought in a coffee maker to keep the two awake while they worked. Alex had designed himself a couple of possible upgrades and was debating which one he was going to implement.

Jeremy took a sip of coffee and set back to work. Alex looked up from his terminal over at Jeremy. "Hey Einstein, I think I have a location of some of Nega-Alex's data packets. If we can destroy it, we can weaken Nega-Alex enough so he won't be a problem. You won't like the location of it. I found it in a replica out on the net. So XANA still has presence on the net. I'll get everyone here and we can explain things."

Alex pulled out his phone and looked to Jeremy, "On my terminal is the code for my new upgrade, as well as one for Kai. I figured that since he looks like Pit, he's going to need a pair of wings. Like Aelita's, their temporary of course. But he'll find two glowing gold rings on his left wrist. He'll just need to tap them to activate them. As for me, I've given myself a last resort power. It's programmed to take 50 life points when I use it. Get those powers uploaded and I'll go topside and make a few calls to get everyone here. It's Sunday, so they won't be in class."

Alex stepped into the elevator, leaving Jeremy to finish his work. Jeremy looked at the code for Alex's new power and ran it in a power simulator. He laughed, "Classic Alex. I knew he loved Dragon Ball Z, never thought he'd give himself the Kamehameha as a power. I'll edit it so that it retains it's power without taking as many life points away." Jeremy edited the code so that the attack only used 30 life points. "There." He took another sip of coffee and leaned back in his chair.

Up in the main building, Alex had already called Odd, Yumi and Ulrich, he quickly texted William about the situation and dialed Kai's number. Putting his phone to his ear, he waited for Kai pick up.

Back at school, Kai was relaxing in his room. He picked up his phone and asked, "What is it Alex? Is Jeremy ready to wipe my memory?" Alex just responded "No, we talked about it over the weekend and we'll keep you on the team. What we need from you is for you to get to the factory ASAP. Can you do that?"

He stated, "Sure, as long as you explain what changed your mind. When is a good time?"

Alex just said "Listen, I'll explain later, before you leave school I need you to grab a black canvas rucksack from my room. What ever you do, do not drop it."

He said, "Alright, is it heavy?"

"Not too heavy, it should be easy to carry, but again… DO NOT DROP IT!"

He promised, "I won't." He hung up. Kai went into Alex's room and grabbed the black canvas rucksack from Alex's room, took off across the park, headed to the factory. He climbed down into the sewer and started walking.

At the factory, Alex and Jeremy were finishing up their work when everyone arrived. As soon as he saw Kai, he walked up, took the rucksack and opened it. He dug around and pulled a few discs out along with some other hardware for his remote terminal station. After getting that out of the way, Alex and Jeremy addressed the others.

"Alright everyone. We need a replica elimination squad while Aelita gets us some needed data. Alex has already volunteered to be one, he'll need a partner, and Aelita will need two escorts. Who's going to do what?"

Kai said, "I'm fine with wherever you need me."Odd raised his hand "Alex and I make a good combat team, I'll go with him." Alex smiled, "Alright Odd, you and I are on replica destruction duty. Now, who will be Aelita's escorts. The Skid only fits 4 others besides Aelita, there are two open Navskids after Odd and I. So, who's on escort duty?"

Kai rubbed the back of his neck, "This seems like a mission I'm not needed on. Jeremy what can I do to help if there is a way for me to help?"

Jeremy shook his head "You can either go on the mission, or stay here in the lab until you're needed. But Aelita might want you as an escort. Looks like Ulrich and William don't want to go on this mission. Alex, Aelita, Kai, Yumi and Odd, head to the scanner room. I'll send you in."

Alex and the others stepped into the elevator, leaving Jeremy with Ulrich and William. Down in the scanner, Jeremy watched the monitor feed of the scanner room's security camera. "Alright, here we go." he said, "Transfer Alex, transfer Aelita, transfer Kai, scanner, virtualization." Next up was Odd and Yumi "Transfer Odd, transfer Yumi. Scanner. Virtualization."

The 5 materialized in the citadel of sector five. Alex led the way to the Skid hangar. They each stepped onto a teleporter, after Yumi directed Kai to the proper pad to stand on. Jeremy got everyone on board. Alex had played with the color schemes of the navskids to make them more personal. His, silver with royal blue trim, Odd's was purple with white trim, Yumi's navskid had been painted maroon with light blue trim. And for Kai, Alex had designed the navskid to be white with gold.

Aelita took off and the team left Lyoko. Out in the digital sea, Aelita rotated the skid and continued on. Alex, Yumi, and Odd brought their seats up and relaxed. "Alright," Alex said "Kai, I'm going to say this once, so listen carefully. This is the digital sea, our gateway to the world. We're going to a replica, a carbon copy of a sector in Lyoko. These replicas can only be destroyed by two of us going into the real world from the replica and destroying the supercomputer that the replica is linked to. While Odd and I are doing that, you and Yumi are protecting both Aelita and the skid while Aelita tends to her mission to collect some data about the virtual emulation of my dark side. Nega-Alex. Aelita cannot be devirtualized before you've collected the data, and if the Skid falls under attack, defend it. Do you understand everything I've said?"

Kai said, "We can't let the Skid nor Aelita fall, if we do its game over."

Alex nodded "That's your mission in a nutshell." As he spoke, the digital sea went from blue to red. Alex, Odd and Yumi were suddenly on alert. "Kai, we have to take care of some monsters, you stay with the skid. Aelita, release Yumi, Odd and I. We'll take these monsters out."

In the cockpit, Aelita released three Navskids, leaving Kai's still hooked. Alex looked at his monitor as his navskid drifted away. Alright guys, three Kongres and a Shark. Let's use attack plan 3 and make some quick work of the monsters." Alex's navskid's thruster glowed and he was off, Odd and Yumi followed suit.

In the cockpit, Aelita pulled the skid to a slow pace. "Alright Kai, we just have to wait now."

Kai nodded, "Alright. So can you go into a bit more detail about what the Skid is?" He mentally said to himself, _this is so awkward._

Aelita smiled "The Skid is our way of safely navigating the digital seas without being permanently devirtualized, never to return to earth."

Kai said, "Alright. You think the others are ok?"

Jeremy's voice came in "The Kongres are done for. Alex and the others are blasting that shark into oblivion. They'll be back in no time."

Kai thanked him, "Thanks Jeremy." He sighed, "Have I ever been useful?"

Aelita looked down at Kai's navskid. "Alex said you're a good addition to the team. He's never been wrong. Also, consider you've only gone on one mission with us."

Kai blushed, "Thanks Aelita. Be honest do you think I'm weird?"

That got Aelita to shake her head "No, like all of us, you're unique. Everyone has their faults and their high points. That's what makes us a good team." As she finished her sentence, Alex and the other returned and docked. "Too easy Aelita. None of our navskids took any damage, so we'll be good for the return trip back to Lyoko."

Kai asked, "We aren't done yet?"

Alex chuckled "Hell no Kai. We've still got a mission to attend to." With that, Aelita hit the thrusters and piloted the skid into a hub. "Here we go. Rotation and ready for high speed transportation."

The skid dropped into the hub and when they came out the other side, there was the replica. Alex smiled. Odd, let's get ready."

Kai asked Yumi, "I think we should have one person defending the skid while the other is protecting Aelita."

"The tower we link to holds the data Aelita needs. We stand the grounds near it." Yumi explained. Kai nodded. In the lab, Jeremy tapped on his keyboard. "Alright, you guys are clear to enter."

The skid entered the replica and docked to the main tower. Alex and Odd were sent into the real world, Kai, Yumi and Aelita were disembarked from the Skid.

Kai said, "Lets be careful."

In the real world, Alex and Odd looked around their surroundings. "Where are we Alex?" Alex looked around, "Judging by our surroundings, I'd say somewhere in Japan. That's if I'm reading the kanji on that sign right."

"Alright, let's get moving." The two entered the building. Alex looked over his shoulder "Alright J-man, get us the floor plans to this place." Jeremy typed on his keyboard. "I got the floorplans guys. You guys are in the entrance hall, head down the hall to the main atrium and take the hall on the east side of the will be an elevator."

Alex and Odd walked into the hallway. Odd looked at the elevator, there was a creeper sitting there. "So XANA has brought in his trump card. He sent in creepers. Odd, let's take them down."

Odd smirked and took a combat stance "I'm right behind you." Alex drew his rapier and Odd pumped his wrist. "On 3?" Odd asked. Alex smirked "Works for me!" Alex hit 3 and they attacked. Alex thrusted his rapier through the creeper. It exploded and Alex slid back. Odd opened the elevator. "Let's move on." Alex hit the button and the elevator rumbled downward.

Back on the replica, Kai was on high alert making sure there was no monsters around.

He said, "Things are way too quiet. XANA is planning something and it can't be good. He get hit from behind by a laser blast. Kai's suspicions were right. XANA had sent in a pack of kankrelats and a swarm of hornets. No way was XANA going to sit back and let Aelita take the data that easily.

Yumi looked to Kai "I'll take the kankrelats. You exterminate those hornets." In the lab, Jeremy heard Yumi say this and said to himself "This might be the perfect time to let Kai test out his wings." then he spoke into his headset "Alright Kai. Alex and I developed a useful tool for you to utilize. Think you're ready to give it a test run?"

Kai responded, "Yeah and thank you guys."

Jeremy's voice came back "Thank Alex when the mission is over. He changed my mind. Now listen, on your wrist you'll see two halo rings. Touch them. You'll see Alex's little surprise. Speaking of which, I have to get back to helping those two."

Kai smirked, "Right. Lets hope this works and I don't crash and burn." Yumi threw her fans and looked back at Kai, "Work fast Kai, those hornets are coming in hot."

Kai nodded, "Right." He activated his wings and started firing away at the hornets hitting a few of them, but a few shots missed their mark. He sighed, "Aiming and flying at the same time ain't easy."

Yumi demolished the last kankrelat and yelled "I'll help guide your shots with my telekinesis."

Kai asked, "Jeremy how many arrows do I have left? And also thanks Yumi."

Jeremy brought up Kai's readouts "You have 20 arrows left. Yumi's plan is to TK your shots and guide them to their targets.

Kai stated, "Alright time for some teamwork." He took aim at the hornets and fired his arrow. Yumi's reaction time was perfect. Her telekinesis caught the shot, sped it up and ripped two hornets down. One left, the queen hornet, equipped with powerful acid as well as her laser.

Kai cussed in his own language, "MAK! What is that thing?"

Yumi's eyes went wide "That's the queen hornet Kai. Instant devirtualization if that acid touches you." She flicked her wrists, bringing her fans to the ready. "You'll have to fire this one on your own. Trust your instincts and let that arrow fly. If you miss, I'll step in and stop it before it can take you down."

Kai nodded, "Right keep the Skid and Aelita safe." He went higher up into the sky for better maneuvering and making it easier to aim with less danger of getting hit. He fired his arrow and it hit its mark. The queen hornet exploded, leaving Kai and Yumi to tend to the task at hand.

Meanwhile, Alex and Odd had reached the first generator. Alex dug a hand in his cloth belt and pulled out a repulse grenade. After securing it down and running a trip line to the other side of the room using an old spool of copper wire. Alex closed the door, pulled the wire and they two moved on.

Jeremy guided them to the second generator, but when Odd and Alex entered the room, it was empty. "Yo Einstein, the room is empty." Jeremy responded "Impossible, it should be right there, unless…" Jeremy switched to a 3-D view of the building, "Bingo! It's in the room below you."

"You mean we have to back to the elevator and go down a floor?" Odd whined.

Alex laughed. "Not today good buddy. I programmed a new power for myself over the weekend, this is a perfect situation for testing it out. Jeremy, you'll need to tell me the angles I need."

Jeremy nodded "Right, take 3 steps to your right, turn 25 degrees, and angle your hands 45 degrees using your feet as a zero point." Alex followed Jeremy's directions and looked to Odd. "I know you've seen Dragon Ball Z Odd, you know you'll need to step back a few steps for what I'm about to do." The purple clad blonde nodded, stepped back into the hall and watched as Alex took a familiar stance.

Alex took a breath "Here goes nothing." His eyes narrowed "Ka-me… Ha-me…" a silver energy orb engulfed his hands as he thrust forward, letting out the final part of the attack cry "HAAAAAAAA!" The blast shook the lab, Jeremy's voice came back "Good job guys! The supercomputer supporting the replica went systems critical. I'm bringing you back to the skid!"

Alex and Odd were teleported out and brought back to their navskids. Sound asleep. Yumi ran and got back on board.

Kai asked, "Aelita are you all set?" Aelita stepped out of the tower "I got all the data we should need. Let's get back to Lyoko" She boarded the skid and waited as Kai was brought into his navskid. As soon as everyone was set, she disconnected the skid from the tower and took off. They made it out of the replica and were barely out of the danger zone when it exploded.

In his navskid, Alex came to again. "Mission accomplished?" Aelita smiled "Mission accomplished Alex." That was met with a sigh of relief and "Wake me up when we get back to Lyoko." Aelita gave the skid some more power to the thrusters, getting the group back to Lyoko in 20 minutes flat. As the skid docked, Alex and Odd woke up.

"I cannot wait to get back to school. I've got a video project for tech class to work on. The theme is horror movies and I'm using Kadic to make an epic zombie movie." Alex said as they disembarked. "I'm gonna finish the script and get some student actors." Yumi looked over at him "That sounds fun Alex, remember we have band practice tonight at 7." This was met with Alex's response "I'll be there Yumi, I've never been late to a rehearsal, not going to start now."

Jeremy materialized everyone and when they were all back in the lab he said "Congrats on making that data grab and weakening XANA once again guys. You guys are free to go until I need you again, see you back at school."

The group got into the elevator and Alex hit the up button, the elevator lurched and began ascending to the ground floor.

Kai looked to the others before he said, "You guys are lucky. I have to go shopping with my sisters for the rest of the day."

Odd looked at him "If you need some friends to tag along so it's less awkward, take William so you have another guy to chat with." William leaned against the wall of the elevator "I'll do it man."

Kai smirked, "I hope you're ready to sweat then. My sister gives new meaning to the saying shop till you drop."

William came back with "There is no girl in this world that William Dunbar can't keep up with. Trust me on that one Kai. Plus, like Alex, I don't really sweat all that much. It takes a full tournament in basketball to get me to perspire, a shopping trip is nothing."

The elevator door opened and Alex stepped out, walking over to his car he said "I can carry one other person back to the school with me. Who wants to ride in lean, mean, pure American muscle?" Odd gave no one a chance to respond. He ran over to Alex's car and got in the passenger seat.

Alex got in and started his car. The blue dodge viper rolled up the service ramp, across the bridge and onto the empty street before the engine let out a fierce sounding rev, there was the sound of squealing tires, a cloud of white tire smoke and Alex's Viper was gone.

Later that night, the Pop Rock Progressives had just finished rehearsal. Alex put away his bass, Nicholas covered his drums, Ulrich threw the cover over his keyboard, Odd was putting his guitar back in it's case, and Yumi was putting away the wireless mics when William came in followed by Kai and his sister.

William cursed under his breath, "I was kinda hoping we could make it back to hear you guys perform." Alex smiled "Nicholas, Odd, we still need to get some more practice on Canto 34. Let's get to it." Odd pulled his guitar back out and hooked it back up "Whatever you say good buddy." Nicholas shrugged "At least it's a good one. Alright." Nicholas pulled the covers off his drums and sat down. Alex strapped on his bass. "Alright William, you wanted to hear us play, you got it." Nicholas counted them off and Odd's guitar came in.

The blonde played his opening well, the opening chord reverberated through the auditorium, Nicholas and Alex soon joined him and they were off. Alex and Odd hard shredding through the chords, Nicholas keeping his beat going. By the time they finished the song, Yumi's jaw had dropped "How long have you guys been working on that?" As they put their instruments away, Odd responded "How ever many times we have practiced. We'd spend an hour after rehearsal working on it."

Alex looked over to William and Kai "What did you guys think?" William gave him a thumbs up. "Good job bro. You guys rocked that." Alex smirked "How about you Kai? What did you think?"

Kai was about to say something but Lily stopped him, "YOU WERE AMAZING!" They were shocked, Kai was right. She looked like an older female version of himself. Alex slung his gig onto his back "Thanks, it's nice to know that the Pop Rock Progressives have a new fan." Odd walked over and whispered in Alex's ear "Alex, I think I'm seeing double." Alex laughed "You're not seeing double Odd. Kai told me his sister and him had similar appearances. He was right."

Kai sighed, "Similar? Everyone I meet says I'm a genderbent version of Lily when she was my age."

Lily giggled, "Its true though little bro." She showed them a picture of her when she was Kai's age. Alex looked at it "Yep, it's confirmed. Kai was right. Who want's to go to Kanniel's? Root beer on me?" The members of team Lyoko's hands shot up, all except for Kai. "Alright, Odd give me your guitar, I'll go put it in the storage room. Be back in a minute." He took Odd's guitar off his hands and walked off. William, Yumi and Ulrich looked to Odd, See you at the gate Odd." They left the gym.

Kai apologized, "Sorry guys I'm too tired from the shopping trip to go." Odd put his hand on Kai's shoulder "There's always next time man. I'll catch you later." Alex returned and he and Odd walked off. They met the others at the gates and proceeded on to their favorite under 21 nightclub.

Around 11:30, Alex, Odd, Ulrich and William returned to the school. "I can't believe it Alex, that's the second time you've been challenged to a rap battle in that club. And both times you schooled the guy who challenged you." William chuckled "Yeah man, you left him speechless, nice job." Alex held his hands up "What can I say? It's a gift." The guys laughed before parting ways at their dorms.

Odd kicked off his shoes, let Kiwi out of his drawer for a bit and sat on his bed. Ulrich had gone to take a shower, and for now Odd had the room to himself. Kiwi jumped onto Odd's bed and shoved his nose under Odd's pillow. When he brought his head back out he had a note in his mouth. Odd stared at his dog "Whatcha got boy?" He took the note away from his pet and read it. "Oh, I see. Alright then." He shoved the note into his pillowcase, put Kiwi away and jumped into bed.

_**A/N:**_

**Ulrich-Stern3277: Hey guys, sorry this chapter took so long to get up. Work and School have been keeping me from writing. The only chances I currently have are friday nights and weekends. My schedule should clear up a little now and I promise that the next chapter will be up faster. Thanks for being patient with us while we get this done, I'm really enjoying doing this, and if you want to work on a co-op fanfic with me, message me about it and we'll discuss from there. Thanks, live long and prosper.**

**Icypika: Sup guys Icy here. I have to agree with Stern this has been a lot of fun to write. I always enjoy writing with others. BTW what could Odd be planning? Wait till next time to find out. Enjoy life people and live it to its fullest. Signing off.**


	4. A Day to Forget

Classes had just ended for the day, Alex, Odd and Ulrich decided it was perfect time to hit the gym and get ready for region basketball. Setting their stuff on the bleachers, Alex opened the equipment room and grabbed a ball. Passing it to Ulrich he asked "You guys want to play some one on one?" That's when William walked in. "How about we make it two on two?"

Odd chuckled "I'm game. Anything to get ready for friday." The guys started their little game. Alex and Odd versus William and Ulrich. 10 minutes in, Alex and Odd were up 6-0. William and Ulrich were too busy butting heads. "Alex stepped back to Odd "These two are completely different on the court during an actual game, but they can't work together in a simple game of 2-on-2? William and Ulrich baffle me sometimes.

The game ended after Ulrich let Alex slip by and score. They split up and Alex headed for the rec room. He sat down in front of the TV, pulled his laptop out, plugged it in, turned on a game and put his headphones on.

Alex heard a scream from Kai's room, "ODD!"

Removing his headphones, Alex looked up "What in the world?"

A VERY Ticked off Kai came down to the rec room. It was understandable he was upset considering he was wear light pink t-shirt with the word superstar on it and skinny jeans.

Kai shouted, "WHERE IS ODD?!"

Alex rested his headphones on his shoulders "I have no clue man."

Kai growled, "He is dead when I see him."

Alex's eyes narrowed, his face becoming more serious. He closed his laptop, set his headphones down, looked Kai dead in the eye and said "First of all, cool it Kai. Second, think. Odd may just be the pawn in this prank. Think about it. Odd wouldn't do something of this caliber alone. It's too well thought out, Odd's tricks are simple gags. He's not the mastermind behind this."

Kai sighed, "I guess so. Maybe it was Sissi? I mean she would be able to pull it off being the principal's daughter."

"Sissi is a possibility, but I can't see her doing something like this. Way too nice for her. She likes complete humiliation, this is minor embarrassment. I'll go talk to Odd, see what he knows, it'd be best if you just stayed back."

Kai nodded, "I'll be in my room if you need me. Maybe there is something in there that can lead us to the culprit."

Alex nodded, "I'll call when I've talked to Odd." He shoved his stuff back in his bag and handed it to Kai, "Put that on my bed for me." He walked off to go find Odd.

Kai picked up the bag, "I'll see you later." He heads to Alex's room and puts the stuff down. In his room he found a piece of cloth. He asked to no one in particular, "What is this?"

In the gym, Alex found Odd working on his three point shot. "Della Robia, over here for a sec." Odd set the ball down and jogged over. "What's up Alex?" Alex looked him in the eyes "I need to know about that little prank you were the pawn for. Who gave you the ideas to pull it off?"

Odd shook his head "I wish I knew good buddy, if you want to check the note that I got, it's in my locker in the locker room. Combination is 32-01-26." Alex nodded and jogged off. In the locker room, he dialed Kai's number.

Kai picked up, "Hey Alex. I found a clue in my room but I don't know who it belongs to. Its a piece of cloth.

Alex looked at the note in his hands "I found a note in Odd's locker. I'll bring it by and you can check it out."

Kai said, "Alright see you later."

Alex pocketed the note, closed Odd's gym locker and walked towards the dorms. He reached Kai's room and knocked "Kai, you there? I got the note."

Kai opened the door, "I'm here and can I see this note?"

Alex nodded and handed it over. "I looked at it several times and compared it to a threat note from Sissi to Yumi. This isn't Sissi's handwriting."

Kai sighed, "Is it Lily's? I haven't seen her writing in a while, but it might just be hers."

Alex nodded "Alright, you confront her about that. If you need backup, any of us can help."

Kai thanked him, "You guys are great friends. Odd might wanna come since he was the one who pulled it off."

"The puppet betraying the puppetmaster. I like it. Give me a few minutes and I'll have him here." Alex pulled out his phone and stepped over to his room. Kai could hear him through the wall "Odd, you were used as a puppet, how would you like to betray your puppetmaster? Alright, come up to my dorm as fast as possible." Alex stepped back into Kai's "He's in, come on over to my room, that's our meeting point."

Kai sighed, "Why do I feel like I'm gonna regret this?"

Alex shook his head. "You won't regret this Kai. Now come on over to my room. We'll wait for Odd there." Alex walked to his room, checked the pepper plants in his window and sat down in his computer chair.

Kai arrived, "Alright what are you planning?"

Alex looked at him "Just a simple plot of revenge." He dug in his desk drawer and pulled out a watch. "Jeremy and I spent months on these and we've got five developed and ready for use. Thing is, they're for me, Odd, Yumi, Ulrich and Aelita." He paused "these are real world virtualization watches. They allow us to virtualize into our Lyoko forms without going to Lyoko. My plan is to convince Odd's puppet master into thinking that Odd is a were-cat."

Kai asked, "Isn't that risky?"

"Everything has it's risks Kai. I've run every possible scenario in my head. And in all of them, Odd's freed from his puppetmaster."

Kai sighed, "If you say so."

Odwas standing in the doorway "Toss me that watch Alex." Alex reached into the drawer and pulled out a watch with a purple face a silver paw print and tossed it over to Odd. "Remember Odd, the sequence is Start/Stop, Start/Stop, Mode. Keep it discreet."

Odd nodded "I'm with you. Get her to me, I'll scare the crap out of her."

Lily was in her room reading.

In Alex's room, Alex gave Kai his options. "Kai, you can either get in on our plan, or you can stay back and watch. Either way, Odd and I are going to go through with it."

Kai sighed, "I'll watch."

"Fine by us. Let's go Odd." Kai watched from a distance.

Night fell and Lily met Odd under the arches. The two started walking towards the park. Alex watched from the trees in silence. The moment was perfect. The full moon was hidden behind the clouds. Just as they reached the park, the moon came out and Odd went into his act.

"Oh no, not again." Odd whined as he grabbed his head. With this, he was able to work with his watch. Lily was only able to watch as Odd "transformed" into a purple furred were-cat.

In his tree, Alex smiled. "Good going Odd. I'm seeing a look of pure horror on her face."

Lily screamed and passed out.

Odd laughed, returned to normal, and helped Alex get her back to her room. The two guys then quickly slipped back into their dorm rooms, changed into their bed clothes and jumped into bed.

The next morning, Alex was alone at the breakfast table. He picked at his pancakes and

bacon, sipped from his apple cider and read from the manga he had brought down with him.

Lily was talking to Jim, "Sir I'm serious Odd Della Robia turned into a were cat."

Jim laughed, "Yeah right the only thing he is a kid who eats way too much."

She everything but whispered, "I AM NOT CRAZY!"

Jim said, "I'll talk with Della Robia and find out whatever happened did happen." He muttered, "If Della Robia doesn't confirm this we need to send her to the loony bin ."

Lily sighed and sat down next to Alex, "You believe me right?"

Alex marked his page and closed his Highschool of the Dead manga before looking up "Depends on what I'm believing. Spill."

Lily replied, "I saw Odd Della Robia turn into a were-cat. No doubt about it. And I could've sworn I saw someone who looked like you in a tree nearby."

"Lily, you've lost your mind. I was in bed all night. Odd was too. Ulrich can vouch for Odd, my room cam can vouch for me."

Lily mumbled, "I know what I saw." A glint appeared in her eyes and she went to Kai's room.

Kai saw her coming, "What's going on sis?"

Lily smiled, "Oh I was just wondering if you were looking for some of your clothes."

Kai nodded, "Yes I am sis and I know you have them."

Lily smirked, "I'll give them back if you explain why Odd turned into a were-cat." Kai flinched and he spotted Odd out in the hall.

Odd poked his head in "Hey Kai, your sister trying to make you believe that bogus rumor that I'm some kind of monster?"

Lily growled, "I know what I saw Della Robia and until I get an explanation I forbid Kai from talking to you, Alex, or any of your friends. Don't say I can't control him as his older sister I have a right to decide if he is hanging out with the wrong crowd. Besides my parent gave both me and Bella the responsibility of taking care of him and I can boss him around." Lily drags Kai off to the cafeteria.

Odd watched, when they were gone he said to himself "Wow, over-reaction much? Let the guy have his freedom." He shrugged and pulled his phone out of his pocket. Jeremy had sent a text to everyone, _Code: XANA, all hands on deck for this one. I'm heading to the factory, meet you guys there._ Alex's response was the next message _Looks like XANA materialized some tarantulas, kankrelats, and blocks. We'll need some people to stay back and fight them off. Ulrich, Yumi go into my dorm. Open the top drawer and pull out the wooden box, find the watch that corresponds to your symbol on Lyoko._

Across campus, Alex was running for the forest, he saw a tarantula, pulled out his pocket knife, snuck up on it and jabbed the knife into the target. "One down. About two dozen to go." As he reached the manhole cover, his phone buzzed. He read it out loud "Scanners destroyed, hook up and use the scan pads. I'll virtualize you remotely." Alex turned on his heels and booked it back to the dorms. He ran into Jeremy's room, grabbed the scan pads out of Jeremy's dresser and hooked them up.

After establishing a remote link to the factory, everything was ready to go. Pulling out his phone, he let everyone know that he was heading in ahead of them. With that, he stood on the scan pad and waited. Across town in the lab, Jeremy virtualized Alex.

The desert sector came into Alex's view as he dropped down to the digital sands below. "I made it Jeremy. Time to do some scouting." With that he took off running.

Back on campus, Yumi and Ulrich had strapped on the watches. They keyed in the sequences and they transformed. Yumi looked at Ulrich, he nodded and they ran out of the dorm buildings.

Odd ran into Jeremy's room, closed the door and stood on a scan pad. Jeremy sent him in to join Alex.

Kai had received the text and hid it from Lily. Kai thought to himself, _dang it I can't get away from Lily and help. _He texted Jeremy back, "sorry Jeremy I can't get away from Lily. You guys are by yourself on this one. Wish I could help, but once my sister has an eye on me I can't get away."

On Lyoko, Alex and Odd had met up and continued onward. The duo had just finished off a pack of krabes and were getting close to the dark tower. Hey Jeremy, we need an update on the situation at school."

Jeremy accessed the school's security cameras and checked each feed "Looks like Ulrich and Yumi are doing really well. There's not very many monsters still running around on campus. Hurry up and finish the job though, I'll have a return trip ready to go." Odd's audio card lit up "You bet Einstein, plus we really need to re-think that prank Alex and I pulled."

Jeremy wanted to ask, but decided against it. "I'm going to keep an eye on the school from here because there's a tarantula in the factory."

Back on campus, Yumi and Ulrich had just finished clean up and had found a place to hide so they could revert back to their normal selves. Ulrich chuckled "Well, that was fun. Lot better than the other times XANA has brought monsters into this world." The two got up and walked back out into the recess yard and looked around. They saw Kai basically being held hostage by his sister.

Ulrich looked over his shoulder and saw an approaching wall of white light. "Looks like Alex and Odd took care of things. Here comes the return trip."

Things reverted back to the previous night. Odd led Lily out to the edge of the park, but instead of transforming again, he got her to put what appeared as normal wrist and ankle bands on and started chuckling.

"What's so funny Della Robia?" She asked him. Odd smirked "Oh, nothing." He paused "Now!"

Lily felt a tugging sensation at her wrist and ankles. Alex and Odd's new trick worked perfectly. Lily was now a human marionette with Alex controlling her movements. Odd pulled out his phone and started taping everything. Odd looked at Lily "Try to prevent Kai from hanging out with his friends and this video hits the internet, as well as everyone in mine and Alex's contacts lists."

Lily growled but gave in when Alex pulled the strings to make her do the chicken dance. "FINE! I'll leave Kai alone when he's with you guys."

Alex stepped out from his hiding spot "Shut off the video Odd. We got what we need." He turned to Lily "Not just when he's with us Lily. You're his older sister, be that to him. Don't be a controlling egotistical psycho-bitch. Kai will come to you for guidance in life, but you need to let him be himself, not who you want him to be. His choices aren't yours to make."

Lily gave up "Fine, just release me." Alex nodded "Odd, get the bands off of her." Odd did as he was told and the guys ran off for the dorms with Lily following them. Alex knew Kai was in bed, but he sent him a text message.

_Odd and I rethought our prank, don't worry about your sister trying to control your life. We handled it. Text Odd if you want the video._

_~Alex_

Alex got into his room and jumped into bed. "That worked perfect, little 200 lb fishing line, some leather strips and some wood, and we made a human marionette. The puppetmaster became the puppet." He smiled, took off his glasses, popped them into the drawer in his bed and fell asleep.

**A/N:**

**Ulrich-Stern3277: These chapters are getting better with our time for collaboration. IcyPika have been working whenever it was possible for us to so we could bring you this chapter. Hopefully chapter 5 gets up faster seeing that I have winter break coming up after my final exams for the semester. Remember, if you want to try making a co-op fanfic with me, PM me and we'll discuss the details.**

**Icypika: Yeah hope you enjoyed the chapter. Do you guys want to see more of Lily or Bella? Leave your thoughts in the review.**


	5. Regionals

There was excitement on campus as the time came for the region basketball game, tonight would be the night that determined if the Kadic Wolves Boy's Basketball Team would be returning to nationals. In the locker room, Jim was giving the team a quick run-through of the game plan.

"Alright you guys, tonight we're playing the eighth ranked seed in the play-offs, tonight's winner goes to nationals in Paris, I want you guys to get back there. I'll let Alex take over and start the break down."

Alex stood up and looked at the guys. "Let's do this our fans are waiting for us out in that gym. Let's show them that we're the best. Let's beat the Dukesridge Bandits!" Alex started the slow clap, the team slowly joined in, the tempo of the claps getting faster and louder. The beat climaxed and Alex yelled "Ready? Breakdown!"

The team responded "GO BIG BLACK!"

"LET'S GO WOLVES!"

"BREAK!"

Jim opened the locker room doors and the guys took off out onto the court, music was pumping out of the gym's speakers and the crowd was going crazy. 20 minutes to warm up and it was game on." The team grabbed basketballs and set to shooting around. On the sidelines, Yumi and the cheerleaders were checking out the cheering Kadic crowd.

Aelita looked at Yumi "The fans seem pretty pumped Yumi."

Yumi nodded "That's because it's the regional match. The finals in the playoffs. The guys win this and we're heading back to nationals in Paris."

Time ticked down, the teams took off their warm-ups and the crowd settled. Mr. Delmas took the microphone and began the opening introductions. "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to tonight's matchup between the Kadic Wolves and the Dukesridge Bandits." The fans rose for the French national anthem and Mr. Delmas began the player introductions. He got through the visiting team's lineup and the time came for the Wolves introductions. The Kadic student section began stomping and clapping and the cheerleaders formed a tunnel as each player was introduced.

"At center, 5'11 sophomore, number 20. Ulrich Stern!"

"At guard, 6'2 junior, number 16. Alex Clelland!"

"At the other guard, 5'9 sophomore, number 26. Odd Della Robia!"

"At forward, 6' junior, number 28. William Dunbar!"

"And at the other forward, 5'10 sophomore, number 00. Jeremy Belpois!"

The cheering died down a little and Delmas continued. "The Wolves are coached by head coach Jim Morales and assistant coach Chris Morales. Student Managers are Hiroki Ishiyama and Emmanuel Maillard. Cheerleaders, Captain Yumi Ishiyama, Aelita Stones, Elizabeth Delmas, Nicholas Poliakoff and Herb Pinchion. Officials for tonight's game are Nicholas Atlan, Christophe de Sabatino, and Noam Kanniel. Let's play some basketball."

Lily was staring at Alex through the whole game.

Kai pondered, "Is Lily crushing on Alex?" He shrugged it off and watched the game. He decided to ask Yumi if she noticed anything odd about Lily lately. Lily was bouncing up and down excited, "GO ALEX!"

The ref threw the ball into the air, Ulrich snagged the tip and sent it back to Alex. Alex dodged around the Bandit's center and took off down court. He reached the three point line, took the shot and sank the three. The kadic crowd erupted in cheers as the Bandits' guard got the ball stolen by Odd.

Odd brought the ball down court, passed the ball to William who brought it in and dunked the ball. The scoreboard now read Wolves-5, Bandits-0. Mr. Delmas acknowledged William's shot. "And a spectacular dunk by William Dunbar!"

The clock ticked down to the end of the first half. When the buzzer for the second quarter sounded, Alex and the Wolves left the court, passing under a scoreboard that read Wolves-27, Bandits-23. The crowds settled down as the teams returned to the locker rooms.

* * *

Yumi walked off the sidelines and over toward the student section. She walked up to Kai "So Kai, what do you and Lily think of your first Kadic Basketball game?"

Lily shouted, "ALEX IS AMAZING!"

Kai shrugged, "They are ok. I've never been one for sports. Yumi after the game can I speak with you?"

Yumi looked at Kai "Sure thing." Then to Lily she said "Hey Lily, Nicholas is leaving the cheerleaders to get some time on the court. That means we have an opening. Would you like to join the squad and become a Wolf Cheerleader?"

Lily nodded excitedly, "You bet! Anything to support the team."

Yumi laughed "You honestly have the enthusiasm Lily. If the boys win tonight, we're going to Paris for Nationals. Joining us will secure you a slot on the trip to Paris. Still in?"

Lily fist pumped, "I never back out of a agreement. I'm so totally in."

The crowd started cheering as the Wolves returned to the court. Yumi looked over her shoulder. "That's my cue to get back to the sidelines. Lily, meet Aelita after the game and she'll get you fitted for a cheer uniform." She smiled, walked back down the bleachers and returned to the sidelines.

The game resumed and stayed close the entire time. Two minutes into the final quarter, Jim called for a timeout and the ref blew the whistle. Huddling up, the wolves devised a new strategy. "Guys," Jim said "We need to change up our plan of attack. Our usual plays are keeping this game too close. We need to open the wolves den strategy." The guys nodded, Alex looked over to Jeremy "Alright Belpois, with the wolves den you get to repeat last years regions. Stay open and we'll win this easily." Then to the rest of the team he said "Hands in. Wolves on 3."

"1...2...3. WOLVES!"

* * *

The team returned to the court. The ref handed the ball to Odd. Odd faked a pass to Alex and threw it to Ulrich. Ulrich passed the ball to William, William got into his sweet spot, took the lay-up and sank the ball for two. The clock ticked down to three minutes and the center for the Bandits fouled on Alex. The teams took to the line as Alex stood on the free throw. He sank both shots and the game continued on.

The crowd was going insane as the final 15 seconds began ticking away. Ulrich passed the ball to William, William passed it to Odd, Odd passed it to Jeremy and Jeremy took the shot. The ball sailed through the air, ran the rim a few times and dropped in as the buzzer sounded.

The Kadic side erupted into cheers. They boys had won and were returning to nationals. The guys left the court to shower, the cheerleaders began to pack up their stuff, Aelita waited on Lily while Yumi went to talk to Kai.

Kai said, "Yumi I need advice. Ever since Lily started watching Alex train she's been all googly eyed."

Yumi grinned "I think your sister may be in love with our friend Alex. You think she might have fallen for him with that marionette prank?"

He smiled, "Possibly. I also well…"

Yumi looked at him "Spit it out Kai. No one's listening."

He sighed, "She left a book in my room one day and when I went to return it. I swear I saw her writing a love letter to Alex."

"You get a chance to prove your suspicion?"

Kai shook his head, "No its just… thing is my sister saw me and threw out the letter, so I couldn't check it."

"I see, speaking of sisters, Lily's done getting fitted for her cheer uniform."

Kai said, "She'll do great. She is the most enthusiastic person on Earth. Thanks for talking to me Yumi."

Yumi nodded "Any time Kai."

Kai thanked her and headed off to his room.

Alex came out of the locker room in a pair of black shorts and a t-shirt. He saw Yumi and smiled "That game was totally awesome. Back to nationals! Jim is so proud of us, who wants to go to Kanniel's to celebrate?"

Yumi agreed to go, the other team members did as well. This left Alex to look at Lily "Well Lily, you're a Kadic Wolf Cheerleader, you're part of the team. Want to join us?"

Lily smiled, "YOU BET!"

Alright then, come on guys. It's not too far to walk. And I don't want you people smelling my hair like the last time." Alex said as he walked out of the gym.

Yumi, Odd, William, Ulrich and Jeremy followed him out and towards the gate. Aelita walked past Lily, "Come on, they won't wait up. We better catch up."

Lily nodded, "Ok Aelita." she ran after them and bumped into Alex, sending the two of them to the ground.

"Easy Lily," Alex said "Curb your enthusiasm a bit." He stood and helped her up.

Lily blushed, "Uh right sorry about that Alex."

"It's cool Lily, just watch yourself next time. We don't either of us to get hurt."

Lily smiled, "Right. So what is this place like?"

Ulrich explained "Kanniel's is a teenage nightclub. Great music, all kinds of sodas. Darts, pool tables, karaoke nights. You name it. If a teenager loves it, they pretty much have it."

Lily said, "That place sounds amazing. Good thing Kai didn't come. He's a party pooper. Oh the stories I could tell you."

"Go ahead and save them. We're almost there." Odd said, turning to Alex he asked "Isn't it Karaoke night tonight?"

Alex nodded with a big grin on his face. "I've got a good one for tonight guys. You'll love it."

Lily eyes widened, "You sing too?"

Alex looked at her "It's one of my many talents, I'm not just good at basketball, I'm not just a smart guy. I sing, play bass and keytar, I'm a gamer, and I love martial arts and boxing."

Lily had stars in her eyes, "You're perfect!"

"I wish. I'm just fun." Alex replied as they entered into the club. Looking at the others, he said "I'm gonna go sign up for a set. Grab me a root beer and meet by the red felt pool table." He walked off.

Lily vowed, "He will be mine!" She got him his root beer and waited for him at the pool table.

Alex quick made his pick. "Diary of a Deadman." The DJ nodded as he dialed it up. "Alright Alex, I'll call you up when it's your turn." Alex smirked "Thanks Mark." He walked off and joined up with his friends. "Got my set guys."

Lily smiled, "Ooh I can't wait to hear you sing!"

Alex leaned against the pool table and drank his root beer. After four other sets, Alex's name was called. "Wish me luck." He said as he walked up to the stage.

Lily said, "Good luck Alex!"

* * *

The music began as Alex picked up the mic.

Lily listened intensly.

Alex's cue came and he launched into the song.

Looking back I still have so many questions

So many things unanswered

Like what did I do?

What could I do?

Was there ever a moment you cared?

Was I always ugly and abandoned

Remembering all the times you wished me harm

You wished me dead

How could I have changed to make it better?

And would I?

Would I?

Why?

I still feel so much hate inside of me

Seems like you were just waiting for me to fail

I'm sorry I can't forgive you

Do you blame me?

You never forgave me

I've tried to grow from this

Every day is a new challenge

Because with you there's just no winning

Like it or not I'm still a part of you

And you're still a part of me

Like it or not you're still a part of me

Yeah

So this is how it ends

All the tears, all the blood

It's all been for nothing

As the candle dwindles and flickers out

The end

* * *

Lily cheered loudly, the rest of the crowd was silent. The lyrics Alex had spoken. They were deep. Odd looked at his friends "I didn't know Five Finger Death Punch would have a song that deep. And it's a lot of speaking." The others nodded.

Lily blushed heavily and left embarrassed. Alex returned to the others "What'd you guys think? I'll do another set later but for now I'd like to play a game of pool. Come on Della Robia, let's go." Odd smirked "You're going down this time Alex."

The two each fishe out 50 cents and put them into the coin slots on the pool table. Odd racked the balls and pulled away the triangle, Alex cracked the formation and sank a solid right away. "I'm solids, you're stripes Odd."

Odd and Alex kept going, cleating ball after ball off the table until only the Eight Ball remained. Odd stared it down, took his shot and the ball rolled close to the far corner pocket. Alex seized the opportunity, took his shot and sank the 8. "I win again Della Robia. You can't beat me. Back in Greece I pretty my grew up in my aunt Rachel's bar."

Eventually, Alex did his second set, choosing Refugee by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. The crowd went wild as he walked off the stage. As they left, Alex turned to the others. I'm pumped for nationals. I get to go with a great team, guess what guys. I'm gonna get us a limo for the trip, as I did last year.

The guys celebrated, Yumi smiled, and Aelita gave Alex a thumbs up. Alex turned to Lily. "Well Lily, you want to go to nationals in style? You get to stay in the same hotel we stay in. It'll be fun."

Lily smiled, "Definitely. It'll be a blast."

Alex smiled "Awesome. Nationals is a week away. I'll call my parents and ask for the limo and see where we can get a hotel." As the group made their way back towards Kadic after dropping Yumi off at home, Alex texted his dad to get permission to use the limo. He got a yes and confirmation that his dad would look for a hotel for the team to stay in. He said goodnight to his friends and headed into his dorm.

* * *

**A/N:**

**Ulrich-Stern3277: Sorry if you think this chapter was short, but it was needed to build in to the next chapter. Hope you don't mind, hope you're enjoying it, and my offer still stands if you readers want to co-op a fanfic. PM me if you want and we'll work out the details. Thanks, now I'll turn it over to my co-author Icypika. Over to you buddy!**

**Icypika: Hey guys I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter. Thoughts on possible shippings? Leave them in the review. **


	6. Nationals

The next week flew by, and before the Wolves players knew it, the time had come to pack their bags and head to nationals. Alex threw his stuff together, knocked on Jeremy's door and stepped in. "Einstein, remember the scan pads. You know, just in case last repeats itself." Jeremy nodded "I've already got them packed and ready to go."

Alex gave him a thumbs-up. "Alright then, meet you at the gate in 20 minutes. I'm gonna see if the others are ready to go." He left Jeremy to finish packing and stepped over to Odd and Ulrich's dorm. Odd was in a panic because he couldn't remember where he put his jersey or his jacket. Alex stopped him, looked his friend dead in the eye and told him to go check his gym locker. Odd jogged off and Alex left the room.

Downstairs in the girl's dorms, Aelita had just finished packing her bag and went to see if Lily was ready to go. She walked down the hall and knocked on Lily's door.

Lily opened the door, "Hey Aelita. I am almost ready."

Aelita nodded "Alex texted me, he says the limo will be here in 20 minutes, we need to meet him and the others down at the gates before then."

Lily nodded, "Ok I can't wait to see Alex."

Aelita slung her bag over her shoulder and headed down the stairs, exiting the dorm building and jogging down toward the gates. Alex and the guys were waiting their, bags in hand. Alex explained that they would pick Yumi up at her house and take off for Paris. The limo pulled up, Alex opened the trunk, everyone tossed their bags in and climbed into the limo.

Alex spoke to the driver in Greek "We're waiting on one more before we pick up Yumi." The driver nodded and the team waited on Lily. William looked to Aelita "You told her we're leaving soon right?" Aelita nodded "Yeah, Lily will be here soon."

Lily came down dragging Kai, "You are coming to the game whether or not you like it Kai."

Kai sighed, "Sis I'm not into sports. You know that."

Lily glared, "Doesn't matter." Kai sighed he had a book in his hand and something in his pocket.

"Lily, let Kai stay at Kadic. Give him his freedom. Remember the video? Odd's still got it."

Lily said, "He needs to support his friends. Besides he isn't doing anything and I know he wants to be there for a certain someone." She smiles and looks toward Aelita.

Alex looked at her "Lily, let it go. Kai is an independent young man here. Let him stay that."

Lily sighed, "Fine but only because you said so."

Kai smiled, "Thanks Alex. Besides I have a math test to study for tomorrow."

Alex looked at Kai and smiled "Anytime buddy, that's what friends are for. Just know that the teachers will be projecting the televised broadcasts of the national tournament during class. 8 teams are going in, 2 will get to the finals, 1 will become champion. Anyway, enjoy your alone time man, we have to get on the road."

Alex tousled Kai's hair, the group said their goodbyes to Kai, and the limo pulled away.

Alex opened the mini-fridge. "Anyone want a soda?"

Lily nodded, "Yes please. I bet you're excited for the game. I know you guys will do great. I need to apologize about Kai's actions. He never really had friends at his old school."

"Lily, relax. Kai is cool dude. He fits in perfectly with our little group. He likes being around us." Alex started handing out sodas "You guys remember the hotel we stayed at last year? We got it again. Just a couple of suites for us. So, the girls can all room together, William, Odd and I will take another room, Ulrich and Jeremy can take the last room. That cool?"

Lily replied, "Sure. You guys want to know why I acted the way I do around Kai?"

William shrugged "After we pick up Yumi."

She simply nodded.

The limo stopped, Alex slid up the L-Bench seat to open the secret door and let Yumi in. Shutting the door, Alex looked to his friends, "That's everyone, we have 6 hours until we're in Paris. We've got movies and video games, plenty of snacks, and there's an intercom to the front to let Galen know if one of us needs a bathroom break or just to get out and stretch their legs. The limo rolled off out of town and Alex leaned back in his seat. "Everyone relax until we get there."

Lily smiled, "Right ready for a story?"

Alex wasn't paying attention, he and Odd had decided to fire up the tv and play some video games. Odd looked through Alex's collection of games "A lot of stealth action and first person shooters here."

Alex chuckled "My favorites Odd, go ahead and pick one." He turned to the others, "We'll let you guys chat." Alex pulled on two small straps near his head and a black privacy curtain dropped down.

Yumi turned to Lily "Let those two do what they love. The rest of us will listen to you."

Lily sighed, "Its about Kai and his odd behavior."

Jeremy looked up from his book "This sounds intriguing, go ahead."

Lily began, "My brother has never had a good experience in his life. It made him close himself off from the world. I am partly to blame for this."

From the other side of the curtain came the sounds of explosions and gunfire. William laughed "Sounds like Odd and Alex are playing Halo 4." Then he looked to Lily, "Ignore them though, please continue."

She continued, "You see ever since Kai was in 4th grade, Bella and I hated having a girly brother and we spread rumors of him being transgender we were hoping he would run away. Kai just took it straight to the face. He eventually retreated to himself and just getting himself absorbed into video games. At one point he actually tried to make a portal to the video game world trying to escape the real world."

Yumi took this all in "That explains why Kai took a while to get comfortable hanging around with us. He must have thought we were going to judge him. I think since he started hanging out with us, he's been slowly getting back in touch with reality, I know he's not fully there but that's fine. We just want him to know that he has us if he ever needs us. We're his friends, it's what we do."

Lily shook her head, "He will never be back completely into reality and it isn't just you guys. He has a certain someone he wants to impress."

Ulrich shrugged "Sounds like every guy. We all have someone we like, we do what we can to impress them in hopes of getting to be with them. It's just the way a guy's brain is hardwired. We do what we do usually out of love or sheer stupidity. More often than not, it's often times the latter."

Lily smiled, "Oh its more than stupidity and do you want to know who that is? In his diary he acts like if she dies its end of the world."

Odd's laugh came from the other side of the curtain "Kai keeps a diary? Wow! That takes guts. I admire that."

Ulrich shook his head "Ignore my roommate Lily, he's one of those guys who tries to impress someone out of sheer stupidity." He chuckled to himself. Yumi looked over "You keep Kai's crush secret, we'll just try and figure it out as time goes on. It's almost Valentine's Day, maybe he'll try for a romantic gesture, we can see then."

Lily smiled, "Not likely. My brother is amazing at keeping secrets. He won't make a move he is way too timid."

William pulled out his phone before saying "He's gonna do something, we probably won't know. Honestly I don't care, just leave Kai alone when it comes to this. Let him gain his confidence by himself. If we're really his friends, we'll allow him that much."

Ulrich agreed before getting up and slipping towards the curtain. "I'm going to go see what Alex and Odd are up to. Have fun back here you guys." He opened the curtain, proceeded forward and let it drop behind him.

Six hours blew by and the limo pulled into Paris. Alex opened the sunroof and stuck his head out. "We're in France's city of lights guys. I'm so glad to be back."

Lily smiled at him, "And City of Love."

Alex didn't hear that, he was too busy admiring the lights. He looked around and ducked back in, in his best tour guide voice he said "If you folks look on your right, out the window you will see the Eiffel Tower. And before you ask any questions, yes we will swing by sometime before the national tournament has ended."

The limo pulled up to Hotel de Crillon, the driver parked, opened the doors and let everyone out. Alex grabbed his bag and let the group inside. After grabbing the keys he looked to his friends "Okay guys, we got the same rooms as we did last year. My parents felt generous. Let's get upstairs. Guys in the Louis XV suite and Girls take the Bernstein Suite." Ulrich decided he would take one for the team and stay with the girls. Being the trusting friends they were. Aelita and Yumi allowed it.

After getting settled into their rooms, Alex looked over at his friends "You guys up for a little walking tour of the city?" His friends nodded. "Awesome, I'll go tell the girls." He stepped out into the hall, walked down to the girl's and Ulrich's room, and knocked on the door.

Lily was sitting on the bed texting Kai making sure he was ok.

Kai texted back, "I'm doing fine Lily. Just finished studying playing some Fire Emblem: Awakening."

Lily texted, "Alright be careful Kai. Don't want you get hurt and upset Aelita"

Kai texted back angrily, "YOU READ MY DIARY!"

Lily smiled, "Yup don't worry I won't tell them."

Alex knocked again, in the back of his mind he was thinking "I figured at least Ulrich would have come to the door by now."

Lily opened the door, "Hey Alex. What is it you need?"

"The guys and I are going out to walk around town, we were wondering if any of you girls or Ulrich wanted to tag along."

Lily said, "I'll go."

Ulrich came up behind Lily. "We'll meet you in the lobby."

Alex nodded and headed back to the room. As he closed the door, he looked to the others "Everyone's in. Tonight, we have fun, tomorrow, we play basketball." The guys agreed with them and they went down to the lobby. Ulrich and the girls met up with them and they went out to explore the city. After dinner and sightseeing, Alex and his friends returned to the hotel and turned in for the night.

Morning came and Alex was the first up among the guys. He was showered and in his game day clothes. After everyone else was up and ready, they grabbed a quick breakfast and made their way to the athletics center. Odd looked to the girls "We'll see you after the games ladies."

They split up and the guys went to change. The team played extremely well, advancing to the finals against a team they knew all too well. The Paris Private Academy Fighting Spartans. Jim looked to the guys. "Listen up boys. The Spartans are seeking revenge for losing to us last year. Let's get out there, play well and win this again. Break it down."

Alex and the guys started the slow clap picking up the tempo. "Ready breakdown!"

"Let's go Wolves."

"1...2...3!"

"Break!"

The wolves grabbed basketballs from the cart and went to shoot around and warm up. Over on the sidelines, Aelita was looking out at the Kadic crowd. She saw a lot of students from the academy, Ulrich's parents, Odd's mom, William's dad, Jeremy's dad and Alex's parents. She smiled, "Nice to see the guy's parents here." She pointed out Alex's parents to Lily "There's Alex's parents. We can't thank them enough for adding some additional funding so we could stay where we are."

Yumi looked up at the scoreboard, '15 minutes to game time, I'm going to get us some waters." She stood up and walked off. Sissi and Herb came up and sat with the other cheerleaders. "Hey guys. Sorry we weren't here for the other games" Herb said as he took off his jacket. "We would have been here sooner, but Sissi was driving and she got us lost."

Aelita looked over at Herb "Alex did offer you the limo and a room, why didn't you take it?"

Sissi's response was flat and snooty as always "We chose not to join you because we can't trust Alex."

Herb slid his glasses up his nose "You mean YOU can't trust Alex. He's my friend. Unlike you, I think Alex is a cool guy."

Sissi's jaw dropped, she tried to say something but couldn't. Aelita turned to Lily

Lily was smiling it was nice to have Sissy being stood up against. She was still stubborn about the things she did at school to embarrass Kai.

The final game got underway and the Wolves were on fire from the start. Their unpredictable strategies keeping the Spartans guessing. Halftime rolled around and the guys were just heading off the court when the heard a panic. Alex turned his head "Not again." He looked to the others. Jeremy and I are heading back to the hotel. Ulrich, you and Aelita are coming too. Odd, you and William are going to stay here and keep the specters at bay. Keep them away from Lily, Kai would kill us if something happened to her."

Alex grabbed his team, threw his warmup jacket on and they left the gym. Odd and William had a brilliant idea. Make this look like a halftime show. Two specters possessing the shooting guard and center for the Spartans.

Their plan went well. Everyone started calming down and enjoying the show. Meanwhile, Alex, Aelita and Ulrich had just been virtualized. They took off across the ice sector, Aelita on the Overwing, the guys on their Overbikes.

Alex watched over his shoulder. He knew that both he and Aelita would have to disable a tower. Ulrich sensed the coming danger before Alex could. He jumped off his bike, drew his swords and looked at the both his friends. "You guys go. I'll stay behind and keep the monsters at bay."

Alex and Aelita understood and rode on. Ulrich was protecting his friends. He'd always done that. They pulled up to the first tower. Plain tower, this was Aelita's. She went in to disable it. Alex rode on. Ahead of him was a road block made of blocks. He abandoned his bike and let it crash, wiping out half the road block. The rest began to attack. Alex duplicated and finished them off.

He fused with his clone and ran into the dark tower. Quickly disabling it he spoke to Jeremy. "Okay man. We had a game in progress and I'd really like to see how it ends. How about a return to the past and we can get back to basketball."

Jeremy activated the return trip and time reverted. The Wolves defeated the Spartans 76-38 and reclaimed their national championship title. "We did it guys. We are the champions again!"

The team returned to the hotel with high spirits. They took to their rooms before Alex looked at them and said "I'm thinking we go out for dinner and then we'll call it a night."

Dinner came and went, the team turned in for the night, and the next morning they took off for Kadic. Spirits high and everyone happy.

**A/N:**

**Ulrich-Stern3277-** **Hey guys. This chapter took a while mostly because of me needing some inspiration. The next chapter will take a while as well. The reason behind that is because I just became a dad and I'm needing time to transition to the role of a father.**

**Icy: Yeah so the story won't be updated for a while. Wish him luck guys.**


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